Charmingly self-deprecating ... Acting may be full of rejection, waiting and humiliation, but what it clearly isn’t, at least in Bonneville’s hands, is dull ... This, it’s clear, is a professional memoir and the boundaries are firm ... And what a professional memoir ... Not gossipy ... Riveting.
If collapsing into laughter is what you need at the moment, then Playing Under the Piano could be the book for you. As a genre, actors’ memoirs are usually to be treated with utmost suspicion; I find most of them gruesome ... But Bonneville’s is great fun ... I’m giving this a four-star review ... Delicious and endearing.
He is markedly discreet about his personal life ... He comes over as a sunny soul ... On the cover, Oldman hails this book as 'Beautiful. Touching. And funny.' I agree.
... winsome ... Bonneville is very good at conjuring the actor’s world in the hour, half-hour, and five minutes before the curtain goes up, and he’s equally skilled at capturing the tumultuousness of the rehearsal process ... But he truly shines at laying out the indignities that are part and parcel of a performer’s life, chief among them auditions ... There are some longueurs here, and readers might reasonably grouse that Bonneville spends far too much time on his vexing experiences in Hollywood working on a quickly canceled sitcom and not nearly enough on the Downton Abbey years. Still, he comes through with some candid and touching reminiscences of Maggie Smith and a hilarious account of a dinner with Shirley MacLaine soon after her arrival on set.
His account is intriguing, breezy and full of intellect and humor. It’s also a delicious stroll down a red carpet lined with big names ... There’s no mean-spirited gossip in this memoir, just plenty of humorous self-deprecation and some laugh-out-loud anecdotes ... A must-read for Bonneville fans.
Acting memoirs don’t come much better than this humorous and self-effacing account by Bonneville ... He also provides genuine insights into the actor’s craft as well as moving sections detailing his aging father’s diminishing mental capacities. This one’s a winner.
